Israel Warns Hezbollah Attack Abroad Imminent
Lebanon’s Hizbullah is planning an attack on Israeli tourists abroad within the “very near future” to avenge the assassination of its top military commander, Israel’s public television said late Thursday.
The report, quoting security sources, gave no details on the alleged operation which it said the Lebanese group planned as revenge for the February 2008 murder of Imad Mughniyeh.
Israeli television said the information gathered by Israeli security sources on a planned attack by the Shi’ite group was “very specific.”
In the framework of the report, the Israeli intelligence sources provided to the local media the names of senior Hizbullah officials responsible for foreign operations. According to Israeli sources, Talal Hamiyyeh, the successor of Mughniyeh, is the head of this apparatus. His chief aide is Ahmed al Qaed, who fled from Jordan 10 years ago after he tried to launch Katyusha rockets toward Israel.
The report added other names who are responsible for the foreign activities, including the expert in preparing improvised explosive devices, Ali Najm al-Din, who is responsible for planning an operation against the Israeli embassy in Azerbaijan in 2008 and which had been aborted. He was jailed in Azerbaijan with his colleague, Ali Karaki and released later to return to Lebanon.
The Israeli sources said the list includes Malek al Abid, an expert in explosives and explosive devices who was involved in the preparation and planting of roadside bombs that exploded at the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires in 1992,” noting that “Malek is working openly in Beirut as a technician for repairing air conditioners.”
